BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 29
By Sadraddin Aghjayev – Trend:
New prospects for economic cooperation have opened up between South Korea and Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani Ambassador Ramzi Teymurov told Trend on July 29.
According to Teymurov, dynamic development of economic relations has begun between Azerbaijan and Korea since 2006.
At present, the priority task of the ambassadors of Azerbaijan and S.Korea is the rapprochement of the two countries in the economic and social spheres, he noted.
Within the visit of the head of South Korea [Roh Moo-hyun] in 2006 to Azerbaijan and the return visit of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to South Korea in 2007, a number of agreements and documents envisaging the development of economic and other relations were signed.
In general, more than 60 agreements have been signed between our countries, the ambassador said.
According to the diplomat, since 2006, S.Korean enterprises have launched joint projects in Azerbaijan.
"In turn, Azerbaijan is interested in using the Korean experience and developing technological processes based on Korean technologies," Teymurov further said.
Besides, he noted that Azerbaijani producers of goods and services are interested in entering the Korean market.
"Expansion of the range of Azerbaijani products in the Korean market opens up additional opportunities for Azerbaijan to advance in the Asian markets. In this regard, the economic relations of our countries and trade turnover have the potential for further growth," the ambassador noted. "The two countries are developing relations in the spheres of education, science, agriculture, banking services, IT and a number of others.”
The diplomat also said that to date, S.Korean companies in Azerbaijan have implemented and financed projects worth about $2 billion.
"Last year, the trade turnover between the two countries amounted to about $179 million. Here, basically, the export of Korean products to Azerbaijan was recorded,” Teymurov said. “These figures, of course, don’t satisfy us, since bilateral trade should be calculated in larger numbers. In 2020, despite pandemic [COVID-19 pandemic], trade between Azerbaijan and Korea increased by 10 percent compared to 2019.”
“Currently, we are working to increase the import of Azerbaijani products to S.Korea and hope that in the next few years, the indicators of Azerbaijani exports will increase several times," he added.
According to him, another priority task of the Azerbaijani embassy is to attract not only Korean companies, but also foreign direct investment to Azerbaijan.
"In Korea, we have already launched this work and are actively negotiating. As part of this work, great opportunities have opened up for us to attract Korean investments and companies to participate in the restoration of Azerbaijan’s territories [liberated from Armenian occupation during the 2020 Karabakh war], which also opens up new prospects for cooperation between our states," concluded the ambassador.
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